Tag Archives: vacation

On Southern Living’s advice….

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After our walking tour of Charleston we realized we’d skipped lunch and were starving. As it was too early for dinner, I did a little phone research and found a seafood place highly recommended by Southern Living magazine. They said the food was superb and to ignore the fact that the restaurant itself was a “dive”.

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Clearly their idea of “dive” and mine differ greatly because while admittedly this place wasn’t the Ritz Carlton, I’ve been in a helluva lot worse.

😉

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Naturally my husband wanted to sit at the bar.

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I’ve never had a strawberry daiquiri served in a mason jar before, but maybe that’s part of their dive-y charm.

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The hushpuppies? Meh.

Not great, not awful.

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My she crab soup?

Mama mia! It may not have photographed well but it was thickest, richest, creamiest crab filled thing I’ve ever had.

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To be honest I was pretty full after just that, but I was on vacation in the low country and couldn’t pass up an opportunity for shrimp and grits.

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I couldn’t…. but I should have, because it was awful. Yes, the shrimp were large and flavorful but the rest was simply a big bowl of slop. Too much pasty gravy, too soupy a consistency… blech.

I ate the shrimp and left the rest.

The husband? He had some type of inferior fish which was dry as a bone.

So much for taking Southern Living’s advice.

Aside from the soup the only thing that made me smile at this place was the poster in the rest room.

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😉

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Strolling through Charleston’s past…

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As I said before, Charleston is a city you need to walk. We ambled randomly after the French Quarter and still managed to find some interesting spots.

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Early settlements did love their walls.

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This is a charming southern city with a laid back atmosphere.

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And some ankle turning cobblestone streets.

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On one of those streets?

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A disturbing but important reminder of what went on here.

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Admittedly you have to view history through the lens of the day, but still. The horror brought me up short.

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Beautiful, yes.

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Interesting buildings? Sure.

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Quirky garden frogs hidden behind a wall of shrubbery?

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That too, but this is the south.

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Where monuments to slave holders still stand.

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It’s hard not to be affected by that, at least for me.

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So we soaked it all in and continued to explore.

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Marveling at how such a beautiful place could harbor such darkness.

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Because we all need more rainbows in our lives.

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Rainbow Row… Charleston, South Carolina.

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No commentary necessary…

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Just stroll along with us for a while.

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I’d like to say you know it’s special if my husband is taking pictures…

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But the man was photographing a gutter downspout.

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Horse drawn carriage tour was my first choice…

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But we did one of those in Beaufort and the husband wasn’t on board for another.

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And Charleston said, let there be a rainbow.

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You can’t visit Charleston without strolling the French Quarter’s Rainbow Row.

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Rainbow Row represents the longest cluster of intact Georgian row houses in the United States. The earliest structures on this portion of East Bay Street, between Tradd and Elliott Street, were built by-1680. The buildings were constructed on lots 7 to 10 of the Grand Modell, a city plan developed between 1670-1680.
Over the years, the buildings served as the shops and residences of notable merchants and planters, and fronted a cluster of wharves on the Cooper River waterfront. The buildings also fronted a segment of the eastern boundary of the fortification wall constructed circa 1704 to surround the city.
Some of the houses were damaged or destroyed by fire, and the present structures date from circa 1720 to circa 1790. The homes suffered slight damage by Union artillery bombardment during the War between the States. After the war and decades of neglect, the buildings deteriorated into slums. Susan Pringle Frost, founder of the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings, now the Preservation Society of Charleston, began her important preservation and rehabilitation efforts by purchasing some of these properties in the 1920s in order to prevent their demolition. The name Rainbow Row was coined after the pastel colors they were painted as they were restored in the 1930s and 1940s. The rear facades and gardens of 93-101 East Bay were also used as a model for the original 1935 stage setting of George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward’s opera, Porgy and Bess.
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In a word? Fabulous.

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The colors, the wrought iron, the charm…

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It’s selfie heaven even if your arms are too short to capture much background.

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Space is at a premium but all the homeowners take pride of place.

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History?

It’s got that too.

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It’s hard to imagine this lovely neighborhood ever being a slum.

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Peek through the iron gates when you’re there.

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Take your time.

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And enjoy.

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We did.

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Toogoodoo and a giant pineapple.

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Day 5 of our 40th anniversary trip dawned sunny and warmer.

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Which was such a welcome change I actually got the husband to participate in … and (half) smile … for a morning balcony selfie.

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On the itinerary that day? Charleston.

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By way of Toogoodoo.

At first I thought the nav system in the overpriced Lincoln was drunk…

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But no, the road exists.

Toogoodoo: The name given to the creek and the area by the Bantu (African) slaves who worked the sea island plantations surrounding it. The word translates loosely as “I have plenty/ My life is bountiful”.

A sentiment that resonated with me all day.

Charleston is a southern city I’ve always wanted to visit and in a little over an hour, we were there.

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We skirted the harbor…

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And drove down one of the most famous neighborhoods.

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Filled with lovely homes…

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All facing the water.

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Unfortunately right after we started driving we ran into a detour due to storm damage from the night before. So we zigged and we zagged in our giant monster rental and elected to ditch the traffic for a walk.

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This is the most popular park in town and thankfully pretty deserted off season.

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It sits right at the mouth of the busy deep water harbor…

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And don’t you dare let Fido off his leash.

$1087 seems like an arbitrary sum, but whatever.

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We hopped over puddles and made our way to the park’s most popular tourist attraction.

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The pineapple fountain.

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Pineapples are a symbol of hospitality and you’ll find them everywhere in this friendly city.

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This is probably a beautiful shot in summer when the sun is high…

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But I couldn’t quite capture the canopy angle properly this time of year.

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Done with the park, we strolled.

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Charleston is an old city with beaucoup traffic and very little parking. Take my advice, put on a pair of comfortable shoes and walk…

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It’s the only way you’ll get a real feel for the place.

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We were headed for the French Quarter and the magnificent Rainbow Row so beloved by Instagrammers.

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I couldn’t wait to explore, so of course my husband had to strike up a half hour conversation with this nice gentleman who had a strange car.

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In case you’re wondering, it’s a Figaro built by Nissan in the early ‘90’s. Only 20,000 were made and he said his wife had to have one. It’s a tiny little thing but after battling the in town traffic with our luxury behemoth rental, I’m sure it’s perfectly suited to life in Charleston.

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Mini hurricane? Go antique shopping…

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After showering off the sand from our beach walk and spraying my second hairdo of the day in place, I planned on spending the day at the resort since no one in their right mind goes out during a bad storm.

No one but my husband who refuses to waste a vacation day that is.

Here’s a little glimpse of the neighborhood right beyond our door. In the rain…

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As we headed over the bridge from Edisto, the sky did not look promising.

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But my husband was determined in his quest.

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Antiquing for my man is like the U.S. postal service…. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night will keep him from shopping for crap.

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I told him he could only buy what would fit in his suitcase. Thankfully this did not.

As usual I saw some ridiculous things…

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Fur trimmed sleigh?

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Ah, the vomit clock.

A time honored treasure.

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Its little demon hand beckoned…

But I ran for my life.

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The husband has a weird obsession with vintage wooden advertising yard sticks and was bound and determined to come home with these… even though I assured him they wouldn’t fit in his bag.

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Southern self help book.

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7 sticks of butter? This makes a wonderful last meal before your arteries snap shut and your heart gives out.

We wandered around the store until the storm got bad enough that the owner wanted to close. Husband bought his yardsticks and a few other small items including this….

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No, he doesn’t cook. But it definitely qualified as quirky.

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In particular this recipe – which was so wrong, it was right.

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My only purchase requires a bit of explanation.

Last Christmas our state lottery ran a commercial about the joys of regifting. (Don’t roll your eyes, we’ve all done it.) The ad was a huge hit… funny and heartwarming and everyone loved it.

Take a look.

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So when I turned the final corner of the store and saw this sitting on a shelf?

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I knew it was $8 well spent and couldn’t wait to see my girlfriend’s face when she opened her gift.

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Store closing around us and bad weather moving in, my husband wanted to go out to lunch. Not surprisingly everything was closed because, ya know… mini hurricane.

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Lunch was at Hardees. And I use the word lunch loosely because whatever that sandwich was it didn’t resemble food as I know it. 🤢

When I finally dragged the other half back to the resort, the pelicans were turned to the wind ready to ride out the storm.

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It’s hard to tell, but the wind was really howling. Watch the palm tree in between the buildings on the upper left.

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The afternoon and evening of Vacation Day 4 was spent playing gin rummy (with a deck that had all 4 jacks)…

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And eating a box of this…

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Which I’d never seen before… but heartily enjoyed. Beer + cheese + pasta = happiness.

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Winds were 65 mph.

It was a long noisy night….

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Pre storm morning beach walk… part two.

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You could feel the drop in barometric pressure, the storm was moving in.

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But we walked.

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With me lamenting the fact that we flew instead of drove to SC because there were some shells worthy of collecting.

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So many shells…

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And the starfish!

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Man, they were everywhere.

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And much larger than what we have in Maine.

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The farther we walked from the resort, the darker it got.

Naturally my husband found the only other person on the entire beach and started a conversation as it began to rain.

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She was collecting dead starfish.

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But as much as I love beach strolling, I don’t love doing it in a downpour so we ran back to the condo.

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Not soon enough judging by my hair.

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Pre storm morning beach walk…

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Not wanting to waste any precious time on our week long vacation, day four threw a monkey wrench in my carefully planned trip.

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We woke to overcast skies, an egret in the pond and a forecast of what turned out to be a mini hurricane. Heavy rain, high winds and dangerous surf are not prime beach resort conditions.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, I burned breakfast. Again…. due to the stupid flat surface stove that had two burners in one.

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High level heat if you turned right, high level heat if you turned left. This proved too much for my under caffeinated morning brain to handle and henceforth, the husband was on his own when it came to eggs.

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But at least the dish sponge was happy.

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Not having walked the beach since we got there, I forced my spouse onto the sand before the storm arrived. That’s his arm to the right of the photo, pointing out which unit was ours. I’m not sure why as we had just exited it and I was unlikely to forget that quickly.

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My husband is not a beach guy, not an idle walker. He needs a destination and purpose…

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I told him pleasing his wife of 40 years should be motivation enough.

😉

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We had the beach to ourselves, but it was cool, dark, damp and hellaciously windy.

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As proved by my epic hairspray fail.

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On the far right side…

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The marina.

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In between?

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Lots of marvelous shore birds.

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Even my husband likes to watch those.

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It’s hard not to smile.

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Windy beaches, selfies and fake stars.

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After discovering the lighthouse we’d come to see was closed, we decided to walk the Hunting Island beach instead.

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Following the rubber highway across the dunes we hit the sand and were just about blown away.

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I packed for the south, where it’s supposed to be warm…. and I swear the week we spent in South Carolina was colder than Maine.

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The beach was lovely.

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But to be honest it was too cold and windy to enjoy.

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The husband was less than thrilled to be walking in arctic wind, but I persevered.

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For a little while anyway.

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You know it’s windy when the sea foam is bouncing down the sand.

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We left before frostbite set in and continued on.

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Past a shrimping fleet and towards Fripp Island which we were told was lovely.

It might have been, but we’ll never know because it’s a gated private island where we were told to turn around and leave in no uncertain terms.

Didn’t they realize the rental vehicle we were driving cost $100k? That should have counted for something.

I mean really… it had a dashboard star display.

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What more could they want?

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If you’ve never been gobsmacked when you walked into a restaurant, then you’ve never been to Johnson Creek Tavern.

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After our horse drawn carriage tour of Beaufort…(did you say Byoo-fert like I taught you?)

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We strolled along the harbor for a spell.

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Then headed over the bridge to explore the Sea Islands.

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Since the husband was hungry we stopped for a late lunch. Not much was open this time of year but we found a spot on the marsh called Johnson Creek Tavern.

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It was an unassuming little place, and while I don’t know exactly what I was expecting…

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It definitely wasn’t this.

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Every square inch of the place was covered in money.

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Yes, as in real U.S. currency. Ones, fives and tens. Most had names or funny sayings written on the face.

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One bad margarita….

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Some run of the mill hushpuppies with, oh the horror, margarine …

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And a terrible bowl of gumbo later, we decided we wouldn’t be eating lunch here… but we did marvel at the decor and inquire about its origins.

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It started at the bar decades ago as these things do. The first dollar spent, a big tip, a foreign bill brought back from faraway lands. But then it grew…

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And grew and grew.

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Now… they harvest the bounty every so often and donate it all to charity. Last year a veterans group was the happy recipient of over $11,000.

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And that’s money well spent.

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The flamingo agrees.

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